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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations human rights office today voiced concern at the harsh sentences handed down this week by a court in Bahrain to medical professionals, teachers and others as a result of pro-democracy protests earlier this year.

An effective witness protection programme is crucial to ensure justice and end impunity regarding human rights violations in Kosovo, the United Nations said today, as it voiced concern that a key witness in a war crimes case was found dead this week.

The United Nations human rights office today expressed concern over the increase in the number of killings of journalists in Mexico this year, and urged the country’s authorities to launch immediate investigations to punish the perpetrators.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has rejected a request by the leader of the Serb Radical Party to discontinue proceedings against him, finding he had failed to prove that his right to trial within a reasonable period had been violated.

More than 12,000 cases of dengue fever and 125 deaths linked to the disease have been reported across Pakistan so far this year, with the majority occurring in Punjab province, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The committee tasked with building a permanent memorial at the United Nations to honour the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade today launched a global competition for the design of the structure to remind the world that millions of Africans were violently removed from their homelands, abused and robbed of their dignity.

The Security Council today called on the African Union to urgently increase the strength of its peacekeeping force in Somalia to its mandated level of 12,000 to enable it to better carry out its UN-authorized mandate to stabilize the war-torn country.

The provision of social protection, long-term care and access to public health for the elderly must not be undermined because of the current fiscal environment, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned ahead of events for the day marking this growing segment of the world’s population.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) today voiced its concern at the millions of people who have been affected by the floods ravaging many countries in Asia, and urged governments to increase their investment in disaster risk reduction.

The largest international Internet governance meeting ever wrapped at the United Nations office in Nairobi, Kenya, today with 2,000 experts discussing security, openness and privacy as inextricably interconnected issues that cannot be dealt with separately.